NATO and the EU : fragmented security actors in the Mediterranean

Abstract

The Mediterranean is an important region in international relations. It has three strategic entry points, and connects the world’s major economic, political and energy hubs. It therefore attracts a number of regional, and out of area hegemons, that have often been responsible for proxy wars in the vicinity. This work attempts to examine the roles of NATO and the EU as key security actors in the region, where its members have utilised both traditional material power, and structural, discursive and normative soft power approaches in an effort to contribute to peace and security in the Southern Mediterranean region. The chapter focuses on Libya and Syria as case studies to illustrate European security dynamics in the region. Understanding the operation of these security frameworks in the Southern Mediterranean is mired in controversy. In the 1990s a more positive Braudelian vision of a unified Mediterranean was uppermost, reflected in the EU Barcelona process that focused on regional building. Today, Panebianco argues, that the concept of a unified Mediterranean has gone out of fashion, in favour of two distinct regions, Europe and the Middle East, with a Mediterranean global South seen as a critical juncture between a universal global North and South. Indeed, the Mediterranean characterised by a long standing fault line dating back millennia reminiscent of the crusades, is presently in the literature, increasingly characterised as fragmented, as one of difference, variety and conflict.